Hey Friends! We continue my half assed coverage of E3 with a wrap up on the rest of the shows. I am sorta batching these all together because after Xbox and Bethesda… everything seems like a downgrade. This morning I am going to talk about games that I thought were interesting and/or got excited about from the following shows with video linked.
There was not a ton in these shows that really piqued my interests, but I did find a few things to talk about. One of my general takeaways from E3 2021 is that it seems like Western developers had a much easier time dealing with the ramifications of the pandemic than Japanese developers. Shows like Square Enix and Capcom which normally have some pretty cool reveals… were pretty anemic at best. It does make me wonder if there is just a more formalized structure there that doesn’t translate to remote work that well? The United States specifically had been moving towards a more flexible and remote office for awhile, and the pandemic seemed to just push already existing plans into motion.
GigaBash
This game makes my inner eight year old happy. Essentially it is a 3D brawler with destructible and usable scenery where you pit one of several Kaiju, Robots and/or Cryptids against one another. I love Monsters, I love Robots and I love Brawlers so I am just hoping I can find some people to play this with when it ultimately launches. I can probably at a very minimum convince Grace to be a Kaiju with me and destroy towns. I particularly liked the volcano level where an eruption was happening and the combatants had to deal with the increasing flow of lava. Fully on board for this particular brand of nonsense.
Release Date: 2021 – Watch the Trailer
Babylon’s Fall
So I am still a bit confused as to what this game is exactly. From what I am reading it sounds like it is going to be a co-op action game where you collect loot and equipment and customize your players to fight tougher encounters. That sounds like Melee Destiny, but also no one has really managed to do Melee Destiny properly yet. It is by Platinum games so expect it to be a little bit on the odd side, and the video specifically states that Nier proved that they had hack and slash chops. However I don’t exactly think of Nier as being a traditional hack and slash game? I am interested and signed up for the beta so I would have to see this in action before I really commit to being excited for it. It is curious enough to gain a mention this morning however.
Release Date: Unknown – Watch the Trailer
Guardians of the Galaxy
You remember that whole Marvels Avengers thing where they make characters look like designers imposters version of the MCU characters? It’s back! This time it is in a single player adventure, which I have to admit I am tentatively interested in. I honestly wonder if this began its life as DLC content for Marvels Avengers, and after the general flop it was ultimately got spun off as its own game? The aesthetics and graphics certainly fit that style with the key difference being this is Eidos and not Crystal Dynamics… but they are all Square Enix studios so who knows. I am interested enough in this to take a wait and see attitude. It could be another Marvels Avengers… or it could be another Spiderman game so I guess time will tell.
Release Date: Fall 2021 – Watch the Trailer
Harold Halibut
Every so often a game comes along that blows you away completely. For me it is Harold Halibut, in part because I love the art style. It turns out that everything you see in the game is hand crafted and hand animated with stop motion. It looks like an old school style adventure game where you are trying to figure out how to get your ship from its watery grave and back out into the stars looking for a dryer home. The textural aspect of the game is just gorgeous and I am going to pick this up as soon as it is available.
Release Date: Unknown – Watch the Trailer
Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster
This one only really gets a footnote because the PC versions of several of these early games are shit. I am hoping that this release ultimately remedies this and we don’t just get crappy ports of the iPhone versions. The fact that this is releasing on Steam and the two mobile app stores however… makes me think that this is likely not the case. I don’t love the look of FF5 for example on the PC. I really do not like that art style and I am hoping however these end up looking… is a bit closer to the feel of the original artwork.
Release Date: Unknown – Watch the Trailer
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin
I have no idea what to even begin to think about this game. Effectively it looks like it is a modern Action Combat Final Fantasy game similar to FF7 Remake… but that loosely follows the story arc of the original Final Fantasy game. Also if you squint your eyes JUST RIGHT you would think this is a Devil May Cry game. I am not sure what this means for the franchise or if it means that they plan on going back and mining the back catalog of Final Fantasy games for future action combat conversions. We live in interesting times, but I have to admit I am sorta into this notion. Maybe the pixel remaster is so that we can remember what was clearly… as they start picking apart the bones to craft crazy mechanized versions for future consumption. In any case there is a demo out now for PS5 and I am downloading.
Release Date: 2022 – Watch the Trailer
Shin Megami Tensei V
I’ve never successfully made my way through a Shin Megami Tensei game but that doesn’t stop me from considering them very interesting. It looks like the next game in that series is exclusive to the switch and we will seeing it releasing in the holiday timeframe. It looks really pretty, or at least a significant upgrade graphically from the ones I have tried to play on the 3DS. I have no clue if I am going to fall for the trap of buying and trying this one or not but it was something that made me interested at least.
Release Date: November 12th, 2021 – Watch the Trailer
Metroid Dread
I have to admit this is the winner of this list far as I am concerned. This is the game that excited me the most out of everything post Bethesda/Microsoft and maybe even competes with some of those announcements. I love Metroid and I specifically love the 2D era Metroid games. All I have really wanted for awhile is for Nintendo to release the remake of Metroid 2 that they did exclusive to the 3DS over on the Nintendo Switch. While this is not what they did… we are apparently getting a brand new adventure which is maybe even better? They specifically labelled it Metroid 5 at the beginning of the trailer… which I am not sure I understand the sequence if that is the case. It seems like there is a chase mechanic similar to Mr X from Resident Evil 2 remake, with your own ways of mitigating this and hiding from what appears to be an indestructible killer robot.
Release Date: Unknown – Watch the Trailer
The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild Sequel
I want to be excited for this game but I am not sure if I can be. After watching the trailer, I read up some of the information that came out surrounding it… and apparently the weapon breaking mechanic remains in this game. That was a deal breaker for me with the first game and largely ruined the entire experience. I didn’t get into the game until I could play it on a WiiU emulator with a mod that removed weapon durability. After that I had the best time I have had in a Zelda game in a long time. So I guess for the sequel… since it won’t be releasing on WiiU I am going to have to hope for the Switch Emulator scene to get better real fast so I can also play this one… with a no durability fix.
Release Date: Unknown – Watch the Trailer
There we have it folks. That was e3 2021… minus Nacon which is way out of band for the rest of the shows taking place July 7th. It was a bit of a disappointing all around with the only “good” shows being Microsoft/Bethesda and Nintendo Direct. Everything else was either an endless wave of indie games that will be forgotten moments after watching the trailer or expansions for existing live service games. I do feel bad for that endless ocean of indies because it really does take an awful lot to make one of them rise above the surf. Overall I did very much feel the loss of the EA and Sony shows and I would expect in both cases that they come up with some show during the summer to make up for that fact.
Even more frustrating however is the list of games not talked about that we know are in the works somewhere. A few things I want more information about:
- Fable 4
- Metroid Prime 4
- Bioshock 4
- Beyond Good and Evil 2
- The Division: Heartland
- Untitled Ubisoft Open World Star Wars Game
- Jedi Fallen Order 2
- Everwild
Then there is a whole slew of Sony exclusives that we missed out on by them not having a show. So I guess we will keep waiting on these things and maybe hear something in the months to come.